Designed by: Don Eskridge
The Resistance is a tense game of bluffing, coffee-housing, double-bluffing and sheer cheek and audacity.
The game takes place in a dystopian future where a corrupt government run with an iron fist. Only you the players can bring them down, by forming the resistance. But amongst you is a spy (or two) and in order to carry out your plans they must be unmasked first.
Each player is assigned a role at the start of the game which they keep secret – most players will be genuine Resistance, but at least one (depending on how many players there are) will be a spy, merely masquerading as a resistance member. Play now proceeds with a random player (you, in this example) being asked to lead the first mission: your job is to pick members to go with you (or without you, if you so desire) on a mission to start the overthrowing of government. Once the team is picked, all players vote on whether they approve the mission: a majority or a tie means the mission goes ahead, and each player is handed two cards: Success and Fail. Members of the Resistance must hand a Success card to the mission leader (face down! the other card goes face-down in a discard pile); spies can choose whether to hand in a success or fail. One fail card is enough to sabotage the mission, and the spy or spies ‘win’ this round. All success cards mean the resistance win the round.
If the mission is rejected at the voting stage, the mission leader status moves to the next player clockwise and the process starts again. This also occurs after a mission, whether it succeeded or not. The resistance need three successful missions to win; the spy/spies need three sabotages!
There's quite a bit of Take That in the Resistance - the whole mechanic of the game is table-talk - so don't be surprised to find yourself targeted at some stage of the game as a spy!
None
It can get tricky working out who you think is the spy, but there's not a lot of maths.
Simple, fun, extremely tense! Randomness is ensured by the role cards.
5-8
Players
10+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
The Resistance is a game where the tension is genuine - it's part of both the theme and the actual experience of playing. If being a member of the resistance is tricky; with your fellow members doubting you, then being a spy is even harder. And that's before you get to working out who's who and convincing everybody you're right. It's a game that is driven by conversation and interaction, so as long as you're fine with being suspected, omitted and accused, it's a brilliant game!